From cap and gown to Sip & Sol, a Sicamous teen graduated into an entrepreneur with the opening of her new coffee truck.
Emma-Lee Braun, 17, graduated from Salmon Arm Secondary's Sullivan campus in June, and by August long weekend, had percolated into a bona fide business owner with Sip & Sol Café at Bruhn Crossing.
The inspiration for starting the business came from recent travels to Italy and Spain, where she explored local cafés and saw a lot of "cool ideas" and, after five years working at another coffee shop, decided it was time to open her own.
"That’s why the name is Sip & Sol, because sol is Spanish for sun. So either coffee’s good for the ‘sol’, or sip and sunshine kind of thing. So it’s like a happy vibe to it,” Braun said. “And I just think travelling’s such a good thing because you get to learn so much about people. And that’s why I also enjoy working at a cafe is because you get to talk to people and hear their story almost.
"I love talking to people.”
While international travel inspired the café, the ingredients are all local, with organic Frog Friendly Coffee from Enderby, milk from D Dutchmen Dairy (with oat and almond options as well) and SIMPs Syrups from Kelowna, with Can't Resist Cookies made in Sicamous also sold there. She offers a full menu of coffees, teas and lemonades, and has a secret weapon of affogato coffee.
Through her travels, Braun encountered the traditional Italian treat, which is ice cream (D Dutch), topped with espresso that has proved to be very popular as it “gives a little bit of sweet with a little bit of bitter... it’s a good mix.”
The coffee truck itself is also handmade locally by Braun and her dad, who built it together on a flatbed trailer, with some of his friends in the trades doing the electrical and plumbing but the rest was just “me and my dad slaving away.”
After her mid-summer opening, Braun hopes to operate throughout the winter at markets, events, and arenas and will be posting her locations on the cafe’s Instagram page so people know where they can get caffeinated. While she wants to do different fairs and events next summer, she also plans to keep the Bruhn Crossing as a home base, where the neighbours love her.
“It’s been a great addition,” Dawn Backs, owner of neighbouring food truck Snacktastic, said of the cafe. “We’re very happy Emma’s here.”
Currently, Braun is the only one working Sip & Sol, but still manages to have it open Tuesday to Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information on her winter hours and different locations can be found on her Instagram page at instagram.com/sipandsolcafe.
